'Start living life now'

SACRAMENTO - For reasons known only to himself, Roy Vazquez Jr. created a bucket list two years ago, an inventory of unselfish goals for the years and decades stretching out before him.

Roger Phillips

SACRAMENTO - For reasons known only to himself, Roy Vazquez Jr. created a bucket list two years ago, an inventory of unselfish goals for the years and decades stretching out before him.

"Make Mom and Dad proud," he wrote. "Become something great in life. Help people out. Find a cure for cancer or autism if possible."

"Note to self," he concluded. "Start living life now!!!!"

Roy was just 10 years old.

"That's the kind of child he is," his mother, Sylvia Vazquez, said softly last week.

Roy, a seventh-grade student at Hazelton Elementary in south Stockton, loves soccer, reading and the 49ers. He has been the protector for his 9-year-old sister, Sophia, who is on the autism spectrum. He has made his parents proud.

But in the wee hours of Aug. 18, Roy was in his bedroom playing video games and looking at his iPhone when he suddenly began screaming. Sylvia hurried in to check on him. "I have pain in my brain," Roy told her.

Within minutes, Roy lapsed into a coma, and more than two months later, he remains unconscious and breathes with the help of a ventilator as he lies in his bed at University of California, Davis Children's Hospital in Sacramento.

How much longer Roy will remain at the hospital is unclear, however, adding to the heavy emotional burden borne by his family.

Roy's parents say they aren't ready to care for their son at the house they rent from the boy's grandfather, Hector Vazquez. The house lacks central heating and needs a wheelchair ramp, a hospital bed and electrical upgrades to power medical equipment, they said.

But the hospital is "pressuring" them to take Roy home the first week of November, his parents say, because their boy's condition has stabilized.

"We would like to take him home when he doesn't need a ventilator," Sylvia said.

Last week, a conversation with a hospital social worker degenerated into a heated argument over the matter. Later, citing patient confidentiality laws, social worker Velma Davidson declined the opportunity to explain the hospital's side of the situation.

Roy's condition is the result of a malformed artery in his brain that ruptured for unexplained reasons. He was born with the arteriovenous malformation, or AVM, but it went undetected until that terrifying Sunday morning.

"Dad," Roy said as his father held him. "Am I going to die?"

"Dad," Roy said, "I just want you to know I love you."

Roy was rushed by ambulance to St. Joseph's Medical Center, then flown by helicopter to Sacramento, where he underwent surgery.

Since then, his parents and sister have seldom been back to Stockton. Home has been the Kiwanis Family House, which provides temporary living quarters to the loved ones of patients at UC Davis Children's Hospital.

Sylvia, 31, works at St. Mary's Dining Room, and 33-year-old Roy Sr. works at the Port of Stockton. Both are on leave from their jobs, and they spend their days and sometimes all night with their boy.

Hector, a 56-year-old retired correctional officer who also lives in Stockton, is at the hospital every day as well. He thinks often of the times he took Roy to shop for books at Barnes & Noble.

"Grandpa," Roy would say, "what's our budget?" Hector would tell his only grandson, "Don't worry." Now, Hector says, "There are no words to describe the pain."

Roy's sister feels the void, too.

"He's my only brother who walks me into school," said Sophia, a Hazelton fourth-grader. "He helps me do my clothes and helps me get ready. He kind of calms me down. He used to make our lives better before this happened."

Early in September, Roy's parents say, a doctor broached the possibility of removing the ventilator. Sylvia and Roy Sr. took offense.

They say they have seen small signs of progress in recent weeks. They say they are nowhere near ready to give up on the boy with the bucket list.

"Whatever they tell me, I take it with a grain of salt," Sylvia said of the doctors. "They're going off textbooks. In the end, the only true one who knows is God. He created us and he can fix us. That's what I hold onto."